“I like good company, but I like hard work still better.” Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Saint-Saëns was an inexhaustible French pianist, organist and composer, responsible for the infamous The Carnival of Animals. Browse our sheet music and scores, and have a carnival with Camille today!
Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris on October the 9th, 1835, and since his father died a few months later, he was raised by his mother and his great-aunt, who was a pianist. Camille’s musical talents were clear from an early age, he took his first piano lessons with his great aunt, and he fell in love with the organ at the very first note. With composition, he also started young, and was only 15 years old when he completed his first symphony (Symphony in A major), which is now very rarely performed.
After completing his studies in piano, organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire, he first worked as an organist, but he gave up his position in 1877, to pursue his love of composition.
As he became increasingly famous, he took more trips within Europe, and to America, as well as to Africa, and it was on this final trip that he died on December 16, 1921 in Algiers, at the age of 86.
Only a few pieces from Camille Saint-Saëns’ great work have made it into the modern concert and stage repertoire. About half of his work is made up of virtually forgotten vocal pieces, such as cantatas, songs with piano, and choral works. However, The Christmas Oratorio and his opera Samson and Dalilah are extremely popular today.
Among his instrumental works, the Piano Concertos by Saint-Saëns and the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto are regularly featured in the modern concert repertoire. The Saint-Saëns Piano Works and the Organ Works by Saint-Saëns, which cover all difficulty levels, are often used by musicians as part of their professional training and development. A work of note is the Symphony No.3 by Saint-Saëns. In this ’organ symphony’, the composer uses the ’queen of instruments’ to create a special timbre within the orchestra.
One of the most famous works by Camille Saint-Saëns is the The Carnival of Animals, with which he enjoyed great success, just a few years before his death.
At first, Saint-Saëns’ musical ideas were regarded as ’revolutionary’, and were initially very successful abroad, before gaining popularity at home. It was not, however, until the late 1880s, that he was considered an established force within the classic music world. At the turn of the century, a new musical avant-garde arrived, with Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky, and Saint-Saëns was increasingly over-looked, and his fame dwindled, as his music was now widely considered ’old-fashioned’.
Throughout his life, Saint-Saëns was an advocate for French traditional and national music, and along with César Franck, he was co-founder of the ’Société Nationale de Musique’, which offered young French composers a pathway into the music world. He also spend his life fighting against the German influence on French music, especially that of Richard Wagner and Arnold Schönberg.
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 921255
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 893349
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 922890
for: Voice (tenor)
Score
Item no.: 922646
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 883732
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 883286
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 873379
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 872772
for: Musikerziehung
Buch
Item no.: 871996
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 878716
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 878097
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 877372
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 876525
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 892535
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 885072
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 884147
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 865647
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 864106
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 864035
for: Basses
Score
Item no.: 863611
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 867931
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 866754
Cantile fantastique nach der Arie der Dalia aus "Samson und Dalia"
for: Trombone, piano
Organ score, solo part
Item no.: 1652615
for: Clarinet, Bassoon and Organ
Score, Parts
Item no.: 998713
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1092095
for: 5 brass winds
Item no.: 291628
for: Violin, piano
Music score
Item no.: 147044
The Carnival of the Animals
for: Chamber ensemble
Violin 2 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 773497
bearbeitet für Violine Solo und Streichorchester
for: Violin, string orchestra
Violin 2 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 649168
for: 2 Klaviere (4MS/6MS/8MS) ORCH
Score, Parts
Item no.: 474832
for: 4 soloists (SATB), mixed choir (SATB), orchestra, organ
Single part (Organ solo)
Item no.: 771659
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 844064
for: gemischter Chor (SATB) und Keyboard
Item no.: 1621315
Selection
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1064238
Poème Symphonique
BOVACO Classic CB
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1022074
for: Piano
Single edition
Item no.: 933078
for: Concert Band and Vocal Soloist
Score
Item no.: 1068077
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1356232
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1060636
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1062325
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1064090
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1647409
for: Horn, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1201713
for: Fanfare
Score
Item no.: 1000739
for: Double bass, piano
Book
Item no.: 962590
for: Symphonic orchestra
Viola (orchestral part)
Item no.: 673899
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1355644
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